johnnycamp5 Messages: 354 Registered: June 2015 Location: NJ
Grand Master
Some remasters can be great, and others horrible. It can depend on what is trying to be done.
Some can be a gimmick for folks who automatically think it means its "better".
Many of the remasters that were done in the 2000's were meant to keep up with the "loudness war" This is generally "dynamic range compression"
It makes the same piece of music sound a little louder (perceived as better) at the same volume knob setting. Lots of this was done for listening to car radio.
There are some MJ hit albums that were remastered around 4 times in a 10 year period (approx) to increase loudness.
Each remaster was "squashed" more than the one before, incrementally increasing overall loudness while sacrificing dynamic range.
On a nice home stereo (especially turned up) these usually sound awful compared to the original mix
There are some good ones too. Jazz music is usually geared towards stellar recordings/mixing and/or remastering.
I have the "jarreau" album both original and then remastered in the mid 2000's, and the remastered sounds a bit better to me, but not necessarily louder.
The "George Benson Al Jarreau" album is by far the best sounding mix/recording on my home system, but would likely be very "quiet or thin" sounding on a scrappy stock car stereo system, whose speakers are usually nothing more than glorified mid ranges drivers.
Posting Rules
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Get a T-Shirt!
